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Goby Cichlid Tank - Surge Habitat

Spathodus erythrodon Kabezi

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#1 BengaBoy

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Posted 04 February 2016 - 09:55 AM

I have set up a tank for some Lake Tanganyika Goby Cichlids.

 

Tank:

  • 2ft cube – 200 litres
  • Eheim 2217 canister filter (rated 1000 lph).
    • Extended spray bar (usually) above water line.
  • In line Hydor 200w heater
  • 1  Sicce Voyager HP 7 10,500lph stream pump run from a Sicce Wave Surfer controller
    • Installed the diffuser to get a broader stream
  • Itsa 2ft led light
  • Substrate is a mix of fine and coarse aquarium gravel
  • Rocks are limestone (for buffering)

Wave making:

The wave surf controller came up on gumnuts and when I went searching for wave makers to suit a small tank and based on reviews the Sicce Nanos seemed like a good match. This turned out to be rubbish since the pumps can’t handle being on/off – even when set to the highest interval of 5 minutes one pump became very noisy, as did the other too, and which literally fell apart within 24 hours – the pump housing would vibrate off the spindle. On reassembly it would function normally again; until the next time. Spoke to the retailer and said the controller must be at fault. Spoke to Sicce and they said there is “an issue” and offered to replace the pumps with something that would be ok. To cut a long story short I ended up with the Voyager HP 7. It is acceptably quiet, you hardly notice the on/off. I can see the mulm getting a bit of movement on the substrate but it doesn’t seem too much, small pellets will almost sit there. Of course it isn’t what I think but what the gobies will think J

I noticed that both the Nanos and the HP wave maker do heat the water, by about 1 degree I reckon.

 

The current current:

While awaiting arrival of the Gobies I have four 7cm Clown Loaches in there. They seem fine in the current and, unusually for these guys, come out to play occasionally. My experience has been if they are in a tank on their own they will hide if they can.

I ran the wave maker for a day on a setting 25 seconds on, 10 seconds off for the full 24 hour cycle. Then I decided to give the Clowns a rest and put the pump on the P2 (night cycle) so the pump is off for 8 hours. Some current still provided by the canister filter obviously. Not sure which way I will go with this in the end. With all the rock there are some quiet spots away from the current even with the pump on.

 

The Rock:

I was undecided about which rock to use but decided on the limestone because it is lighter in weight and will provide buffering. I will start out with quite a bit of rock covering about 60-70% of the bottom and some taller pieces at the back, one piece almost breaking the surface; but I am wary of too much rock when new fish are introduced to a new aquarium – hiding fish can be sick fish and you might not know. Rock is something that can be experimented with as long as the changes don’t stress the fish.

 

The Gobies:

I had always wanted to try Goby Cichlids. Their swim style (comical due to the deflated swim bladder) and bi parental mouth brooder behaviour sounded interesting.

I tried getting some years ago when I had a bunch of Tropheus tanks but no luck. When I started up some tanks 6 months ago I started looking again. I heard of a few around Perth but no sellers. I tried importing but orders fell over at the last moment. Given the trouble I had had sourcing any and their slow growth rate I decided to bite the bullet and get six of the bigger WC Spathodus erythrodon “Kabezi”.

If I am lucky a pair will form. If this happens then I expect the aggression in the tank to be sufficient to make me remove the remaining four. These four will go into a dedicated 6ft 400 litre Tropheus tank. If another pair forms the remaining two will go into a second dedicated 6ft Tropheus tank. If I get three pairs from the original six I will go buy a lottery ticket.

I guess there is a good chance no pairs will form given they are more mature? Maybe they had already bonded in the lake and now that bond has been broken with being caught? Then again I watch Tangs breed and they will forego food when spawning, so the urge is strong.

 

I ordered six of the WC Spathodus erythrodon Kabezi (5-7cm).

 

Attached File  Spathodus erythrodon Kabezi 3.jpg   63.65KB   28 downloads

 

Attached File  Spathodus erythrodon Kabezi 2.jpg   62.51KB   29 downloads

 

Attached File  tank.jpg   159.14KB   31 downloads


Unfortunately three didn’t make it through quarantine so I only ended up with three.

 

Around 6cm and too small to sex for me; besides what was I going to do if I did know?

 

Current setup:

  • Sicce Wave Surfer controller
    • Installed the diffuser to get a broader stream
    • Initial setting 25 seconds on, 10 seconds off
    • no night running (8 hours)
  • lighting on just for 30 minutes each day
  • temp 26.5

Gobies seems to be settling in ok.

They are even eating a small pinch of sera flora.

Feisty little buggers.

The four clown loaches are still in the tank with them and the gobies are giving them a bit of biff, and amongst themselves as well. Very territorial.

So everyone is nicely distracted at the moment. Me included.

 

Attached File  Spathodus erythrodon Kabezi.jpg   79.73KB   31 downloads


Edited by BengaBoy, 04 February 2016 - 10:01 AM.


#2 dicky7

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Posted 04 February 2016 - 04:57 PM

Excellent write up  and tank looks great :)



#3 Maaxim

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Posted 07 February 2016 - 01:28 PM

Very nice... Have you managed to take some photos or video of your new arrivals? Please continue the story you seem to be a great editior ;)



#4 BengaBoy

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Posted 07 February 2016 - 05:15 PM

Very nice... Have you managed to take some photos or video of your new arrivals? Please continue the story you seem to be a great editior ;)

 

thanks

the last photo in the first post is one of the new arrivals.

limiting the lighting at the moment til they are well settled.... but seem to be thriving in the current which I am going to change around this coming week, mainly so there is more at night time - will post an update.



#5 BengaBoy

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Posted 08 February 2016 - 06:43 AM

Very nice... Have you managed to take some photos or video of your new arrivals? Please continue the story you seem to be a great editior ;)

 

forget to say

in the post

 

http://www.perthcich...wtopic=62402=

 

under the heading

Bi-parental mouth brooder

is a link to a video where the female is transferring eggs to the male.

 

https://www.youtube....h?v=iy34rDW7PME

 

not the best vid for their colouring tho.



#6 BengaBoy

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Posted 09 February 2016 - 01:45 PM

1st Week summary:

Gobies settled in well

Eating. Active.

Don’t mind tank lighting on.

Very territorial. Push the Clown Loaches around.

 

Two have claimed a rock each at the front of the tank. Rocks are holey rock and they alternate between laying on top of rock, hanging out in a cave, or in a cave with their heads poking out checking out the scenery. Very curious critters who like to play hide and seek with you. Often seen poking their head around a rock to check you out.

The third has moved around a bit at the back of the tank, sometimes hanging out on a rock ledge near the surface.

 

3 of the 4 Clown Loaches are happy enough, the other a bit quiet the last day or so. Not sure if the current was too strong or the gobies have been bashing him up too much. No obvious external damage. Colour is good. Possibly a parasite from the new arrivals?

 

Did a 30% water change today and Gobies didn’t seem bothered by that.

Gave them a light feed afterwards as a reward.

 

Have added a blue led for a few hours night light.

 

Changed the wave makers and control settings:

Swapped out the Voyager 7 (10,500 lph) for a Voyager 4 (6,000 lph) and a Voyager 2 (3,000 lph)

V4 is on for 45 seconds and then the V2 is on for 15 seconds.

At night (8 hours) only the V2 is running, 15 seconds every minute.

 

More Gobies:

Have order some more Spathodus erythrodon “Kabezi” to make up for the ones I lost during the import.


Edited by BengaBoy, 09 February 2016 - 01:49 PM.


#7 malawiman85

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Posted 10 February 2016 - 07:25 PM

Very cool. Great to see something a bit different and a habitat imitated so well. 



#8 BengaBoy

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Posted 01 March 2016 - 04:03 PM

1st 4 weeks - summary

 

One of the Gobies likes to rest on the top of one of the wave makers J

 

The problematic Clown Loach was back to 100% a few days after I changed/lessened the current. Might have been too much for them even though it was off for 8 hours in night mode.

 

Now on one Sera Flora feed a day and beg for food all the time - worse than Tropheus if you can believe that.

Not sure if the surge habitat with its “more than normal” current would be increasing their food requirement? More exercise? Higher metabolism?

Have given them an occasional taste of frozen brine shrimp and frozen mysis both of which they took to straight off. Also have tried some “stick on” spirulina tabs but the loaches hogged them – difficult to put one in a neutral territory; and they don’t break up very well.

 

Pairing & Aggression:

 

No signs of pairing.

Aggression is only moderate.

Territory is vigorously defended.

A bit of chasey-chasey during feed time or territory ingress but no mouth locking biff or physical damage.

 

The two most dominant at the front corners of the tank started off expanding their territories to include the back lower sections of the tank. The third goby tends to hang out at the back of the tank, mostly in the upper levels, often taken up look-out on top of the wave makers.

As their time in the tank increases they have become more confident which is visible in the territory expansion.

 

Just in the last few days there has been some change in behaviour where all territory is now under dispute and there has been a changing of the guard with some of the rocks. Could this be the start of some potential pairing? Or has someone decided this tank is only big enough for one of us?

 

Should be getting some more Spathodus erythrodon “Kabezi” in a few weeks so will have to think through how/where to house them.

 

Wave Controller:

Overall 65 seconds duration

P2 45 secs~ Voyager 4 6,000 lph (on P2 so off at night 8 hours)

P1 20 secs~ Voyager 2 3,000 lph (on P1 so runs at night, so 20 secs every 65 secs)



#9 boonahsider

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Posted 12 March 2016 - 07:58 PM

Thanks for sharing mate. I do have Eretmodus cyanostictus blue spot Kapampa WC. Have them for almost 8 months now.  Havent seem them pairing yet. They are sharing tank with others. According to your set up, I might give them their own species tank and try again. cheers!



#10 BengaBoy

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Posted 13 March 2016 - 08:19 AM

Thanks for sharing mate. I do have Eretmodus cyanostictus blue spot Kapampa WC. Have them for almost 8 months now.  Havent seem them pairing yet. They are sharing tank with others. According to your set up, I might give them their own species tank and try again. cheers!

 

I like species only tanks for breeding, but from my reading most people breed gobies when they have tank mates, often in with Tropheus colonies.

 

my understanding is full size gobies won't tolerate each other unless there is a lot of space, or they pair up. But I am new to Gobies so can't say from experience. My experience with other fish is there are lot of exceptions and personality types so one can generalise but you have to adapt to what you see.

 

If yours aren't killing each other, and you are happy with their tank mates (type of food they are getting etc) then I would be inclined to leave them where they are until they decide one way or another? I have heard of gobies pairing up in 3 months, but I don't know what is the norm.

 

What size are they? Sexed? How many?

 

I picked up 3 more Spathodus Erythrodon Kabezi yesterday. Bit smaller, 6cm, than the other 3. Put them in a Tropehus tank.


Edited by BengaBoy, 13 March 2016 - 08:20 AM.


#11 BengaBoy

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Posted 25 March 2016 - 01:58 PM

we have a pair.

had about 30 minutes of "spawning" but saw no evidence of eggs.

 

Attached File  pair a c.jpg   200.57KB   11 downloads



#12 Maaxim

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Posted 25 March 2016 - 02:20 PM

That's fantastic news! Is the pair from one shipment or just formed with your new addition..? 



#13 BengaBoy

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Posted 25 March 2016 - 02:57 PM

That's fantastic news! Is the pair from one shipment or just formed with your new addition..? 

 

yeah. pretty chuffed.

 

the pair has formed from the first 3 I got.

the 2nd lot of 3 are still in another tank.

didn't want to disturb the 1st three until there was a reason.

and also make sure the 2nd three were healthy

 

will see how the "spare" fares

might keep the pair on the their toes :)


Edited by BengaBoy, 25 March 2016 - 02:58 PM.


#14 BengaBoy

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Posted 31 March 2016 - 03:37 PM

end of month 2

 

there does seem to be a pair.

not as buddy-buddy as I expected, but they do spend some time together on a particular rock where they spent about 30 mins "spawning" the other day.

tolerate each other more but don't spend that much time together.

they both give the third hell, but nothing damaging.

 

2nd trio

Put the second trio in a 6ft tank with a Tropheus colony.

Exhibiting the same behaviour as the three in the surge habitat tank.  Two have claimed a rock at each end of the tank and the third a rock in the middle. They don’t like territory incursion by each other but are tolerated by the Tropheus – though I have noticed the Gobies have nipped caudal fins, two of the damaged have pretty much regrown, so not sure who is the culprit here.



#15 BengaBoy

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Posted 01 May 2016 - 01:52 PM

April Summary:

 

The pair & spare:

Pair of Gobies in the Cube tank given the third hell and occasionally “he” is reluctant to eat so decided to put “him” in with the three Gobies in with the Duboisi. At first it looked it might work out okay but after 36 hours “he” was in the wars again. So put him in with the T. “Moops” on his goby lonesome. Pretty happy now and damaged fins have regrown – but think he is missing his goby mates.

Mid-April, a couple of days after removing the “spare” pretty sure I had a spawn with the pair as one became shy to eat and would only eat small flakes. After 11 days all back to normal with their eating so figure the eggs didn’t get transferred to the male. Either they need practice or the Clown Loaches interfered.

 

The Trio:

These three are pretty happy and am optimistic I might get a pair there as two are much more tolerant of each other, and while not hanging out together, they share territory a bit.

 

So, now:

  • Have a pair in the surge habitat cube tank looking promising.
  • Three in with the Duboisi – optimistic of a pair
  • And one in with the Mpulungus – the “spare”

 

Will be interesting to see if the surge habitat is more successful than a standard tang habitat, so far it appears to be, but one can’t really say it is the habitat making the difference.



#16 BengaBoy

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Posted 30 July 2016 - 05:16 PM

Cube Shut Down

For varying non-fishy reasons I have decided to shut down the Cube Surge Habitat tank.

The pair of Gobies from there have been added to the Tropheus tank housing the original third member from this tank.

I thought I might make some observations from the experience so far.

 

Being new to Goby keeping I am going to apply a methodology that has stood me in good stead from keeping other varieties successfully – that is, never assume what you have read (on the internet) to be true. As they say mileage varies – for all sorts of reasons. Although I searched extensively for material there was not a lot about – even tho I know/suspect there is a wealth of experience out there it isn’t widely shared.

 

Observations:

  • Initially the Gobies seemed to enjoy the surge environment but once a pair was formed and the 3rd removed from the tank they were very shy. Only venturing out and about at feed times. Their behaviour in this respect is quite like Clown Loaches – they want other fish about them to feel safe.
  • There were several spawns in this time in the tank (4 months) but no evidence of fry.
  • The other trio of Gobies (always with Tropheus in another tank) were always out and about with a possible two spawns (no fry). The trio in this tank are interesting in that it became obvious when a pair formed but after a month or so of the pair forming the smaller Goby decided the dude at the other end of the tank needed investigating and hung out there for a week or so. This alternating “pair” behaviour has been alternating ever since – about once a month the “pairing” swaps. Two of the Gobies are similar size and larger than the one that does the alternating. So the smaller could be male, or female.
  • Pairing in both tanks occurred pretty quickly after occupation. All 6 Gobies are WC (allegedly J ).
  • Aggression usually was only moderate except after the pairing in the 2ft Cube, then the third was pretty much smashed (shredded fins etc) and had to be removed. The trio are back together in a 6x18x18 and happy enough so far (only a few days).
  • I have to observe that the aggression is not dissimilar to when you have too few Tropheus together, and we all know the more Tropheus together the merrier they are. This has got me to wondering how Gobies would go if you had a colony of them to dissipate the aggression, and whether they are really “pair forming” or in a colony (in a tank as opposed to in the wild) they would be less monogamous. I believe there is someone in Perth who is doing just that (18 together). It would be interesting to get updates on how this is going? (hint).


#17 chrishaigh82

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Posted 11 February 2017 - 10:34 PM

How is your colony going in the bigger tank.

 

Did you end up setting up the 2 footer cube again :) 



#18 BengaBoy

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Posted 12 February 2017 - 11:14 AM

 sold the cube.

Have all the gobies in with my tropheus.

Minimal aggro but no breeding

 

How is your colony going in the bigger tank.

 

Did you end up setting up the 2 footer cube again

 






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